Archives for July 2014
The Benefits of Scheduling Social Media Posts
Maintaining an active presence on social media isn't easy. In fact, it can be a full time job. Whether you have one social media page to manage or dozens of them, using a scheduling tool has many advantages over clicking the “publish now” button. Below are just a few of the many benefits of scheduling your social media posts:
- You can spread out your posts so that you don’t overwhelm your followers. It’s not unusual to find yourself on a roll. You may have a dozen interesting ideas all at once. That doesn’t mean all of those ideas need to go out all at once. Using a scheduling tool allows you to spread them out.
- Other team members can review your posts before they go live to catch errors in judgment, spelling mistakes, legal issues, or other potential problems. By scheduling posts in the future, you or someone else can
look them over to make sure that they comply with your social media strategy and avoid potentially embarrassing mistakes.
- You can work more efficiently. It’s much more efficient to spend a block of time composing social media updates and scheduling them than it is to do it on the fly.
- You can post more consistently. By scheduling social media posts, you can set up a consistent schedule. Whether you schedule a month’s worth of posts at once or do it a week at a time, you’ll be less likely to miss a day thanks to your advance preparation.
- You can take time off. Who wants to write business posts when on vacation or dealing with a family emergency? By scheduling your posts in advance, you can take time off without distractions. At the same time, you can rest assured knowing that your social media audience is not being neglected.
- Scheduling posts can drive engagement. For example, you might work Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 5:00. Without a scheduling tool, your status updates would be limited to your normal business hours. However, what if your audience is more active on weekends or at night? With a social media scheduling tool, you can reach your audience at the best possible times.
Despite all of the advantages of scheduling social media posts, some social media users choose not to schedule their posts because there are a few potential pitfalls. For example, what if a terrible tragedy occurs and your scheduling tool posts inappropriate status updates? If you do schedule social media updates, you should review tomorrow’s posts the night before. With your upcoming posts fresh in your mind, you’ll be better able to respond should an external circumstance occur. Another potential problem is receiving comments and questions on a post and not being around to respond. You may want to schedule posts that will generate comments and questions for a time when you’ll be available to moderate the discussion and schedule those designed to generate likes and shares for when you’re unavailable (if necessary). The benefits of scheduling social media posts are compelling. It’s not an all or nothing process either. Try a mix of scheduled and live status updates and get the best of both worlds.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Three Ways to Make Your Facebook Posts More Engaging
You want followers to like, comment, and share your Facebook posts, right? As with anything else, writing engaging Facebook posts takes practice — and it doesn’t hurt to have a few tips to follow.
Below are three ways to make your Facebook posts more engaging.
- Add a description to every link you share. While the content you share may speak for itself, failing to add your own thoughts in the status box is a missed opportunity. Give your followers a reason to actually click through and read what you’ve shared by writing a compelling introduction. Encourage additional interaction by asking followers what they think. Your description doesn’t need to be long or complicated. In fact, even a few words may be enough. By adding a short description to the content you share, you are showing your humanity and making a real effort to connect. Keep doing it and you will likely see more comments, likes, and shares as a result.
- Give your followers a choice. Every so often, ask your followers what they prefer, this or that. Obviously, your question and choices should be relevant to your niche. For example, if you run a candy shop, you might ask, “What do you like better, crunchy or chewy?” If you run
an auto repair business, you might ask, “When it comes to driving in the snow, which do you prefer, snow tires or four-wheel drive?” Your followers will have definite opinions and many will feel compelled to share them. You can take this tip even further by using graphics instead of plain text to ask the question. For example, you could create a graphic with side-by-side images of the items you are comparing and include text that simply says “Which one do you like better?”
- Hold a contest. Social media contests are extremely engaging, especially when a desirable prize is at stake. You can run formal Facebook contests complete with rules, entry requirements, and prizes or informal contests just for fun. In either case, make sure that you follow Facebook’s promotional guidelines. If you intend to run a full-blown social media contest, use a social media contest management tool to ensure a professional, well-organized campaign that complies with Facebook’s promotional guidelines and helps you reach your specific engagement goals. If you simply want to have a little fun, post a funny (but relevant to your niche) photo and ask your followers to caption it. You’d be surprised at just how clever your audience is and just how much interaction an informal caption contest can generate.
Start incorporating these three tips into your weekly Facebook plan. As you share content on Facebook, add your thoughts by describing or commenting on what you are sharing. Give your followers a choice between two opposing items and let them have a voice. Drive even more engagement with a weekly or monthly social media contest.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are a unique brand of person. After all, it takes a certain amount of courage and ingenuity to start up your own business. But it takes more than that to keep it running successfully after you've gotten through the initial start-up phases. What are the main characteristics of a successful entrepreneur?
Here are some of the main characteristics that you should have as an entrepreneur if you hope to maintain success for years to come:
1) An innate belief that you can make anything possible
The most successful entrepreneurs have been able to take abstract ideas that many people would have laughed off and turn them into incredible, unthinkable achievements. An understanding that everything starts off as a mere idea combined with a belief that you can make that idea into a reality is a trait that simply cannot be underrated for entrepreneurs.
2) An eagerness to take on any challenges 
Many successful entrepreneurs are so eager to leap over hurdles that they start figuring out potential problems and their corresponding solutions before they even arise. That way, if the problem should ever come up, they're already prepared with a way to neutralize it. Obstacles, doubters and other challenges are the fuel that entrepreneurs run on.
3) Unbridled enthusiasm and optimism
Attitude really is everything. If you take the attitude that you are eventually going to succeed, you'll be much more likely to do so. It's really a self-fulfilling prophecy. You'd be amazed at how difficult it is for people to be an optimist, but the most successful entrepreneurs can do exactly that.
4) A rejection of rules and authority
Successful entrepreneurs tend to be the kind of people who want to be in charge and set their own rules, rather than be bounded to the supervision and rules of others. They find success in thinking outside of the box and working for themselves. However, they also tend to have very high expectations for themselves and others.
5) An intense passion for what you do
Without a passion for your business or idea, it's going to be hard to succeed. Successful entrepreneurs are deeply passionate about their idea and are able to convey that passion through their leadership.
Do these sound like characteristics you embody? If not, how can we help you get there? Contact us today at Viral Solutions; we specialize in giving business owners the push they need to find success in their endeavors.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Three Types of Highly Shared Content
The value of having your content go viral is undeniable; with the right qualities and a little luck, you can create content that people find interesting enough to share with their friends, who share it with others, creating a major snowball effect. This is an amazing way to draw traffic to your website and convert more sales.
But what exactly are the qualities of content that make people want to share it?
We'll start with the most obvious:
1. Content that evokes an emotional reaction 
People want to see content that is important, interesting or funny, or content that reflects their beliefs. The more powerful and activating the emotion (think anger, awe, anxiety), the more likely it is to be shared. In general, people share positive content more than negative content, according to a recent study.
However, it's important to understand that just because emotion drives shares and engagement doesn't mean that you should try to inject misleading emotion. A common critique of modern media is that it plays too much off of people's emotions, especially with “click bait” headlines online. The content you have should speak for itself without having to resort to cheap, emotionally misleading headlines.
2. Content that is controversial
People are much more likely to share content if it is related to some sort of controversy. After all, controversy sells. However, it is once again important to exercise caution if your brand has decided to share some type of controversial content. Be sure that it fits within your content marketing plan and has some sort of relation to what your company does. No good can come out of weighing in on a controversial issue or subject that has nothing to do with your business. You could run the risk of alienating followers or damaging the image of your company.
3. Content that is currently trending in the media and pop culture
See what's trending on Twitter or Facebook, and stay up to date with what's hot on social sharing sites like Reddit and Pinterest. If there are relevant, trending topics, images or other content that are relevant to your brand, jump on them! But be sure that they are still relevant; your brand could come across as looking out of touch if you post content that was trending last week.
These are three of the most commonly shared types of content. Keep these in mind as you plan your content marketing strategy.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Why your Facebook fans do not see your updates
When you follow an individual or a business page on Facebook, you expect to see status updates from those users in your news feed, right? If you only follow a handful of people and businesses, then you probably would see most of their updates. However, the more you follow, the more cluttered your news feed will become — especially if you follow active users and businesses. Facebook attempts to show you the most relevant updates possible. However, this means that some updates will not be shown to you. Understanding how Facebook makes these determinations is important for business page owners and managers. After all, when you post a status update, you expect it to be shown to your followers, right?
How Facebook Determines What to Show
Facebook uses a complicated algorithm to determine what to show and what to hide. For starters, users have some control over what appears. Each post has a down arrow in the upper right corner where users can report a post as spam, ask Facebook to stop showing posts like that, or
even unfollow a person or page right then and there. Users can even participate in a short question and answer process to fine-tune their news feeds. In addition, users can add pages to interest lists.
Users who do not interact with certain post types or individuals will eventually have fewer of those served up in their news feeds. For example, if you follow a business but never comment, like, or share that business’s posts, Facebook will stop displaying future posts. It’s as if you never followed the business in the first place. On the other hand, if you constantly like photos and regularly share YouTube videos, Facebook will likely allow more photos and YouTube videos into your news feed.
Facebook also considers the device you’re using as well as your current Internet speed when determining what to display. If you’re accessing Facebook from a smartphone with a slow connection, you may not be shown as many videos as you would on your desktop.
What This Means to You
These are but just a few of the thousands of factors Facebook considers when determining what to show in your news feed and the news feeds of your followers. However, understanding that how users interact (or don’t interact) with your posts will influence whether or not they’ll see your future posts is crucial. You need your followers to like, comment, and share your posts!
With that in mind, you need to write posts that compel users to like, comment, or share. As they do so, they are sending a signal to Facebook that they enjoy seeing your updates in their news feeds.
Prompting Users to Like, Comment, and Share
Your success on Facebook boils down to engagement. You should have a goal for each update. With each status update you post, think about what action you want your followers to take: like, comment, share, click link, visit a Facebook tab, and so on.
Next, think about what’s in it for them if they do. For example, why would someone want to comment on a Facebook post? Here are a few reasons: to share their opinion, to share their expertise, to blow off steam, and to make friends.
Craft your status update to address that inner need. Let’s say that you are linking to an industry report that just came out, your goal is to get comments, and you think that your audience would like to share their opinions about it, you might post the link and ask your followers about their opinions on a controversial point brought out in the report such as, “Did you read the Acme Report? What did you think about its conclusion about secondhand smoke?”
In the example above, your goal isn’t to drive traffic to the report but rather to discuss the report’s findings. The link is there as a courtesy for your followers who haven’t yet read it. It’s clear that they should return to your Facebook page after reading it to share their opinions.
In addition to setting goals and addressing the “what’s in it for me” question, include a call to action. This can be as simple as saying, “click like if you agree.”
Finally, keep an eye on your page’s insights. Some updates will be much more engaging than others. Examine your winners and losers to see what’s working and what isn’t. Do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.